The Jirapa Municipal Finance Officer, Mr. Emmanuel Borkpeen Saaburo has disclosed that the day to day administration of the Municipal Assembly largely runs on the internally generated funds of the Assembly.
He further said although the Assembly has achieved over 70 percent of its target, the funds generated is not sufficient for the numerous projects they intend to execute, although it was the Assembly’s wish to achieve at least 90 percent of the revenue mobilisation target.
Mr. Saaburo made these revelations during the Composite Budget Hearing in Lawra where some selected Municipal and District Assemblies presented their budgets ahead of the scheduled presentation of the 2024 Budget Statement by the Finance Minister, Ken Offori-Atta to Parliament for parliamentary scrutiny and possible adoption.
Mr. Saaburo also added that the demands on the Assembly are numerous, however, revenue mobilisation is relatively not encouraging and that some of the alternative sources of funding are from the Central Government, the flow of which is also erratic.
He says the situation is mainly attitudinal and that if the Jirapa Municipality should enjoy its fair share of development, its people should be prepared to honor their civic responsibility by paying the requisite taxes, because no society or government can function effectively and efficiently without the right kind of revenue and resource mobilisation.
It came to light that chief among the reasons for this phenomenon are lack of revenue collectors, local politics among some Assembly Members, poor performance of many substructures and pilfering of revenue collected among others.
The Municipal Budget Officer, Mr. Bashiru Akibu alluded to this situation by adding that poor revenue mobilisation is greatly affecting operations of the Assembly thereby denying it of the needed development.
He was however quick to add that the Assembly is coming up with some innovative yet humane strategies to overcome this challenge and that they have been challenged by Central Government to be proactive in dealing with the situation. He revealed that the revenue projection in terms of the Internally Generated Funds for the year 2024 stands at GHC 403, 632.41 and that they are leaving no stone unturned to achieve this target and hope to mobilize at least 90 percent of the projection although the Assembly still relies on other sources of funding such as GPSNP, SOCO, DPAT, GIZ among others.
He also admonishes the prompt payment of revenue from other sources of funding such property rates and support from Assembly Members, because, the Assembly has huge revenue potential.
He is also calling on individuals and groups especially the youth not to shy away from helping in revenue collection since there is nothing negative about it and is also a source of personal income generation.
